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Mom Files a Complaint With School to Protect Kid’s “Innocence”
A mother has filed a complaint against a D.C. elementary school to protect her kid’s “sense of innocence.” So what did the school do?
Show her seven-year-old dirty movies? Make her draw swastikas? No and No.
They let a lesbian teach little kids. Quelle horreur.Margaret C. Hemenway announced on the PFOX blog (one of those groups that peddles the notion that the “ex-gay” movement works) that she and her husband were “astonished” when their first-grader came home to say her teacher was getting married to another woman.
And goshdarnit, the teacher even let the kids ask her questions about it and read them a (children’s) book about it!
Like any good fearmongering Christian (differentiated from your normal every day Christian by a lack of pure common sense), Hemenway goes on to mention William Ayers and terrorism just to get everyone into a good old-fashioned uber right wing frenzy.
Naturally she’s clouding the issue with non sequiturs. Because if people weren’t upset about a queer standing in front of kids, by golly talking about terrorism should do the trick, am I right?
Then Hemenway makes it sound like the lesbian teacher is talking about doing the nasty in front of the kids:
“There are sound reasons that sexuality topics are not generally introduced in school until fifth grade, at an age when some children begin to ask how babies are made. Even then, parents generally enjoy the right of an opt-out from sexual education instruction for their children, depending on the maturity of their child, religious beliefs, or their preference that they themselves explain “the birds and bees.” The first-grade teacher was asked by one child whether she and her girlfriend could have children; another asked why they couldn’t just be friends.”
The difference between a “sexuality” and a “sex” discussion is quite distinct. One is about love, one is about what happens between the sheets. Even the question “can you have children” is easy to answer with a very asexual “no.”
Then there’s the big jump from a discussion of sexuality to pornography: “Homosexuality is condemned as a sin by every major religion in the world today- should my first-grader also be exposed to other sexual sins in first grade, adultery and pornography? Just because we have gay acquaintances or friends who commit adultery doesn’t mean that we celebrate it or talk about it in front of young children.”
So Uncle Bobby’s Wedding is pornography? And two women getting married is adultery? And while we’re on the subject: you have gay friends, but you won’t talk about that in front of your kids. Doesn’t sound like you’re very good friends, then, if they have to be shadowed away from your children.
The complaint filed with the school district chancellor isn’t the first big stink from these parents. They likewise complained when the district warned their child about “good touch, bad touch” because warning kids there are naughty people out there is inappropriate (unless they were warning them about homosexual people, natch) and called in the big guns when the school allowed for a Ramadan table in the cafeteria even though she says Islam doesn’t call for the kids to fast (they didn’t take this mom’s suggestion of a Lent table – although she fails to mention that the Catholic Church doesn’t call for kids to fast during Lent either).
If she wants to protect her kids’ innocence, what’s next? Will the school be sued when a teacher dies in a car accident because her kids shouldn’t have to learn about death so young?
It’s true, kids are innocent. That’s why we send them to school – to learn, to question and to grow up. The beauty of it all? They can decide what they want, based on the facts.
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14 Comments
Sara commented on Dec 21 09 at 2:19 pmWhen I got married I told my students and not a single parent complained. I even told my students I was going to kiss my husband so I could giggle when they all said EEEEEW.
She also thinks that kids don’t ask where babies come from till they are in fifth grade? Nutso woman.
Wonder if she would have complained if her teacher was getting married to a black man because her religion forbids interracial marriage.
e commented on Dec 21 09 at 2:33 pmI vividly remember having a party for my first grade teacher when she was getting married. I remember making cards and singing a song that another teacher had written for us about our teacher and her son-to-be husband. Like Sara said, no one got upset about that. Why is this different?
RRRh commented on Dec 21 09 at 9:39 pmInappropriate
Sandra Jessup commented on Dec 21 09 at 9:40 pmI can identify with that parent. If lesbians and homos want to violate nature and not pass on their mutated genes on, then all the better. However, it is not fit to have that kind of crap in a class with children.
Lorna commented on Dec 21 09 at 10:31 pmIf the parents don’t run around like Henny Penny….and shout fear…how will the Christians ever be able to keep control of the unsaved. Take your kid out of school and teach it at home….or send to a religious school of your choose…But let the rest of the world live in peace. When I read articles like this…it conforms my decision not to belong to a church….I can live without this nonsense.
Kate commented on Dec 21 09 at 10:31 pmComments I am always amazed at the apparent need by gay people to constantly talk about who they prefer to sleep with. Honestly, do any other teachers talk about their sex lives to 7 years olds, and bring in books to describe their sex lives? I highly doubt it. Perhaps if they left their sexual preferences in the bedroom like most hetero people do, there would not be anywhere near as much fuss made over things. Really, nobody needs to know about this until at least puberty.
joanie commented on Dec 22 09 at 9:51 amKate, that’s part of the argument of the post. Marriage and sex are not the same thing. You can talk about love and commitment and completely avoid discussing your sex life. Like the other commenters described, it happens all the time. Most hetero people don’t leave their sexual preference in the bedroom — they hold hands, kiss in public and announce joyous occasions like marriage happily to anyone who would care. (E.g., the kids they teach.) Asking gay couples to avoid doing any of these things is unfair and unreasonable. Maybe when YOU hear about two women getting married, all you can picture is naked people on sheets — but that’s your dirty mind. I see two happy, smiling people standing at an altar (or in a courthouse) smiling with love and thoughts of the future. And I think it’s beautiful. Unless you poison these kids’ minds with sexual thoughts, why would they think otherwise?
Verena commented on Dec 22 09 at 1:57 pmI too remember one of my elementary school teachers getting married. My parents helped me buy her a wedding present. To this day I feel my innocence violated. Children should never be exposed to the idea of marriage, because married people have S-E-X. I move we stop calling people “husband” and “wife” because this simply fills children’s minds with perversion.
LolaLane commented on Dec 22 09 at 3:14 pmIt has to be said that the hateful comments around here (looking at you Kate and Sandra Jessup) would be laughable if they weren’t so bizarre. Unless taught otherwise, kids don’t care one way or another whom someone marries; it is irrelevant to them, as is HATE. HATE is taught, not inherent.
Sandra Jessup commented on Dec 23 09 at 7:08 pmLolalane, what exactly is hateful about what I said?
There is no reason that a class full of children need to hear about a teacher marrying someone of the same sex. It is just immoral behavior. I am NOT a Christian, however I do believe that same-sex behavior is wrong. I don’t have a problem with Steve dating Jeff, as long as my child isn’t subjected to the teacher’s biased justification of immoral behavior.
The classroom is not a place for politics.
Ri-chan commented on Dec 23 09 at 7:58 pmI completly agree Sandra Jessup, the classroom is not a place for politics, so stop bringing them in. If someone gets married, it’s reasonable to assume they’re going to tell people, so stop being such a bitch about it.
Spartic commented on Dec 24 09 at 1:05 pmA note to Sandra and RRRH and Kate, marriage is not politics. Two women getting married is not for you to judge, keep your morality away from my kids. If you want to protect your kids keep them home and turn them into little bigots just like yourselves.
E commented on Mar 26 11 at 12:33 amIt was inappropriate for the teacher to read the kids a book about gay marriage. Those are aimed at molding young minds. Imagine what an uproar there would be over a book that portrayed gay relationships in a negative light.
Brigette commented on Aug 27 11 at 6:42 pmI wonder what this woman will do if Bert and Ernie get married.
She probably thinks it will make the government crumble, and the four horsemen appear….
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